Sustainability

LIVING VILLAGE HOUSES

DESIGN CRITERIA
We try and fulfil the Lifetime Homes standard which is a set of 16 design criteria that provide a model for building accessible and adaptable homes. These features include planning the layout of the house for wheelchair use such as putting accessible bathrooms on the entry level. In this way the houses are ready for future changes in the mobility of the owners as they age – you can stay in your house for a longer time. We apply these standards particularly inside the houses and only when we feel they make sense to us.

FLEXIBLE LIVING
Our houses are designed to be flexible and are ideally suited to those who want to work from home. Internal spaces can be used in a variety of ways to suit different requirements. Partition positions can often be removed or re-positioned to alter the layout of the house as the family alters.

The villages are wired for broadband and other technology. Some of our developments are designed with a business support hub. In this way people can work in the homes. They are around in the daytime, enhancing the community and giving life to our developments. Car use and commuting can be minimised.

MEDITERRANEAN ATMOSPHERE
All our houses have large windows and many have sun spaces and internal balconies. The sunlight flooding into the houses and the warm, dry interiors give the feel of a Mediterranean climate.

A REAL FIRE
We install flues for wood burning-stoves, wood being a virtually carbon-neutral fuel source and for extra heating in cold spells our houses are fitted with central heating systems.

LIGHT AND HEAT
Our houses are built with a super-insulated engineered timber frame structure with deep, highly insulated wall panels. The timber comes from managed forests and is virtually carbon neutral. Insulation is either recycled newspaper or mineral wool.

These deep structural walls give a traditional cosy-feeling depth to the house. We splay the walls back at the windows to let as much light into the rooms as possible, then build deep sills.

By investing in a well insulated structure, heat is conserved in the house. Less reliance then needs to be placed on warming the air, resulting in a simpler house.

We face the houses towards the sun and use high performance windows to draw in as much light and warmth as possible. We make the most of this free energy with high quality glazing which traps sunlight. High levels of insulation and draught-free building techniques keep the heat in.

Our houses have solar hot water panels as standard. These panels warm the water in an advanced hot water tank, providing between 50 and 70% of the annual hot water of the house. New government feed in tariffs give a 25 year payback for energy generated, giving our householders an income from their heating system.

The remaining hot water can be generated by a boiler or a heat exchanger. This hot water feeds an underfloor heating system, which is unobtrusive and needs relatively low temperature water to warm the well insulated house. The final choice of heat generation depends upon the location of the site.

Window units are sealed to the timber kit in line with the best European practice. Sealing around the window and door openings means that warmed air is not lost and the house becomes quite air-tight. The quality of the air is kept high by the heat recovery ventilation system, which recycles up to 90% of the heat that would otherwise be lost to the outside air.

NATURAL AND LOCAL RECLAIMED MATERIALS
Producing and transporting building materials burns energy, so we use locally sourced materials wherever possible. We use timber from sustainable sources and reclaimed building materials such as bricks, slates and roof tiles.

Lime renders are used to face the houses. Lime is a time-honoured building material which is mixed with local sand. It is a ‘carbon negative’ material, meaning that it absorbs carbon when on the building.

We also go as far as positioning homes to minimise excavation in order to reduce the amount of earth that is moved.

NON TOXIC MATERIALS AND PAINTS
MDF is not used in the houses, instead the internal joinery is always timber. We use natural paints inside and out to maintain a healthy indoor environment. Water soluble eggshell paints and waxes take the place of gloss paints and varnishes to prevent VOCs from being released into the home.

We like to paint the outside of the houses in cheerful colours. These natural paints weather in over the years.

CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY
There are a number of technical standards which UK houses are designed to, including Ecohomes and the Code for Sustainable Homes. Each of these standards measures carbon reduction in their own way and has different requirements; one gives points for being close to shops, the other values water reduction very highly.

Different sites have different demands; we find the best overall to be the German 'PassivHaus' standard. This refers to a specific highly insulated construction of buildings which concentrates on the highly insulated building fabric. It is therefore a passive energy-reducing design which gives excellent comfort conditions in both winter and summer.

We aim to achieve PassivHaus standards on all of our developments. Living Villages have always built houses with this standard in mind, even before the definition was coined.

PassivHaus dwellings:

• are one of the world’s leading standards in energy-efficient construction
• make the most of the free power of the sun by having south-facing windows and few north-facing openings
• use efficient components and a whole-house ventilation system to achieve exceptionally low running costs
• are comfortable, healthy and sustainable
• typically achieve an energy saving of 90% compared to existing housing
• The highly insulated building fabric means that they do not need many complex micro renewables to function.

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